music

Spin recently tracked down the Top 10 Rock’n'Roll Landmarks and I was shocked to find out that places like Tom’s Diner and Fountains of Wayne actually exist. Each of the ten locations listed feature the musical reference (there really is a Sound Garden) and also interesting facts (Springsteen’s Cadillac Ranch cars are planted at 52 degree angles –the same as Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza).

The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday on the 15th anniversary of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain’s suicide. His hometown of Aberdeen, Washington has seen some controversy lately concerning a makeshift park situated under a bridge in which the rocker hung out and once wrote songs. Recently, granite plaques have appeared around the area featuring Cobain…

The New York Times today ran an interesting story on an old topic: beef between rappers in the hip-hop community. The article focuses on Joe Budden, a new school rapper, and Raekwon, a 90s rap relic, famous for being a member of Wu-Tang Clan. Budden has built a following, and a means of attack, via the…

Five years ago, activist, writer and professor Bill McKibben published an essay at Grist calling for artists to step up and address one of the most pressing issues facing humanity: climate change (The Day After Tomorrow and State of Fear just weren’t doing it for him). We don’t know if artists responded directly to McKibben’s call; we do know that we’ve seen much more creative work on global warming since then. Visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers have all engaged the subject, creating some compelling, thoughtful work.

The World Science Festival has just begun to release some clips from this year’s festival which was held in June 2009. One of the most notable is from “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus” where Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation. World Science Festival 2009: Bobby…

Madonna was friends with Andy Warhol. He and Keith Haring gave her a collaborative painting for her wedding to Sean Penn in 1985. But, due most likely to Warhol’s untimely death, the pop princess was never one of his portrait subjects. Until now. In an homage to Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, and her own iconic status…

Comprised of Scott Kirkland and Ken Jordan, THE CRYSTAL METHOD is one of the best-selling electronica bands in the United States. They’ve come a long way since their debut album, Vegas (’97), which went platinum…a feat that most electronic bands can only dream of. Having earned their reputation for creating explosive live sets throughout the 90′s, the duo has gone beyond studio mixing and DJ-ing to scoring film, television, and video games. During a hiatus following the release of Community Service II (’05), Kirkland and Jordan took a break from live performance and focused on other projects like their first original motion picture soundtrack for LONDON, Nike’s Drive: Nike + Original Run, and the deluxe edition of Vegas which contained various remixes.

Divided By Night is their latest album and is their “re-introduction” into performing live sets once again. Recently seeing them in concert, Lara Marsman of BILLBOARD.COM said that they “still perform as they did fifteen years ago, even after a five-year hiatus, demonstrating why they are the original gangsters of electronic music.”

Read more about The Crystal Method and view the exclusive behind-the-scenes video!

While listening to filmmaker David Lynch speak at the BAFTA Awards in February 2008, Moby had an epiphany. Lynch’s message – creativity for its own sake is a beautiful, wonderful thing – was a simple one, but it hit Moby with the force of the Zen master’s cane. “At that moment, I decided to just…

For this weekly entry, be sure to plug in your headphones or turn up your speakers. Here are five buzzy music videos circulating around the Internet that I found catchy and visually stimulating. Enjoy.

1. Popular mashup artist DJ Earworm’s latest includes Kanye’s “Heartless” and The Police, “Message in a Bottle,” as well as some others.

Known for his offbeat humor, absurdist lyrics and stream-of-consciousness riffs, singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock returns to Sundance Channel in this original concert film shot in New York in late 2008. Here the cult favorite — dressed in a polka-dotted shirt and matching guitar — is joined by Terry Edwards on keyboards, horns, bass and piano and Captain Tim Keegan on guitar to perform songs from his 1984 album I OFTEN DREAM OF TRAINS, including “Cathedral” and “I Used to Say I Love You.” John Edginton directs.

The half-filled room at Brooklyn’s Bell House Tuesday night was good testing ground for Suckers (no The, just Suckers) who will soon go from playing to a handful of their friend’s friends to hundreds of people this summer. With their pop/rock/electronic sound and a propinquity for the keyboard (they play with four), Suckers are an appropriate pairing for MGMT who they’ll open for at an already sold out show at the Prospect Park Bandshell July 1st, followed by a month long residency at Piano’s where you can see them every Thursday night.

If you find yourself in the Land Down Under in the next month or so, be sure to make a stop in Sydney for the inaugural Vivid Sydney. Developed by Events NSW in partnership with the City Of Sydney, it will be the biggest international music and light festival in the Southern Hemisphere, showcasing the city as a major creative hub in the Asia-Pacific region and celebrating the diversity of Sydney’s creative industries.

In case you missed mention of Matt and Kim‘s latest video in a recent post by fellow SUNfiltered blogger Matthew Rodriguez, we thought it deserved another look (at least from the Naked Love perspective):

The Grizzly Bears boys must be exhausted. Everywhere you turn, from the The New Yorker to blogs big and small, their faces grace yet another insightful interview or glowing review. They’ve probably generated enough buzz to last them through to their next album. What the Internet does not need then is more commentary (or even…

comic by Dani Lurie This is what the internet is for: How Fucking Romantic is a brand new, wicked cool blog that’s illustrating the Magnetic Fields album “69 Love Songs,” one by one: We are a loose collection of mostly London-based comic-artists, illustrators and writers, who have grown up listening to the Magnetic Fields and…

To end your work week on a musical note, each Friday we plan to bring you a roundup of some of our favorite and most creative music videos circulating around the Internets. Here’s our first selection – more after the jump.

I’ve been using the iTunes Music Store pretty much since the day it launched, but I’ve never really spent any time poking around iTunes U, the section of the store devoted to podcasts, videotaped lectures, and other content from universities, museums, and similar institutions. Participants include the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the…

ARTURO SANDOVAL SHAKING THINGS UP ON PERCUSSION BETWEEN SETS WITH ARTURO SANDOVAL (PART 2): Sundancechannel.com caught up with the legendary Cuban-born trumpeter, composer, pianist, percussionist and, yes, scatter (!) between shows at the world-famous Iridium Jazz Club just north of Times Square in New York City this past Saturday night. Be sure to read Part…

In preparation for a performance her band booked for April 15th, Tax Day, singer Britt Savage created this topical dress from strips of the pink Child and Dependent Care 1040A forms as well as some individual tax forms. Hope you remembered to file, kids!

Watch a quietly captivating unofficial music video concept for the catchy single, Sabali from Malian duo Amadou & Mariam. Their hotly anticipated album Welcome to Mali was recently released stateside on March 24. You can stream the entire album on their website. I’ll never look at two empty chairs the same way again! And here’s…